Ravenseye

Hi folks, I work at one of those local mom 'n' pop hobby stores. Before shopping at Tower Hobbies, or Horizon Hobbies websites, use the store locator sections of their sites to find local stores that can sell the products to you. Those stores probably can't match the prices that Tower, or Horizon can offer you, but they can come close. Another thing to consider, if your r/c car/plane/boat has a problem that you cannot figure out using the "instruction" manuals they include, it would be good to have a little bit of goodwill at the local shop before you bring in your toy for service. I know I tend to give better service to people who put money in our coffers, rather than those of Tower, or Horizon directly. If you have any questions about those products, please feel free to ask! I've been working there for over 6 years now and have seen just about everything..lol -Mike

Santa Baby...... Thats such a nifty lil ditty. And all the gals they get to sing it sound sooo...yum :) -Mike

I work at a retail store...Think of it this way. There are only 17 paychecks between now and Christmas. -Mike

We normally have a white christmas here in syracuse. Last year we were dissappointed in that we only had a dusting of the white stuff here rather than the normal few inches of it. -Mike

Fake baby! Anything to take the work out of the holidays is worth it to me. I have some fir oil that I sprinkle some ornaments with and refresh every week and you can't tell the difference between ours and the real ones -Mike

We try to have them up the first week of December. The outdoor lights we get out in October. The yard decorations go up in December though. This year we're going to have a little more than last year though. Not having to deal with my dads passing will make the holidays a lot nicer than last year! Bring it on! -Mike

Those, are awesome! I loooove the one with the lady having issues with her wig...I showed that one to the guys at work and they were aghast! -Mike

Nah, can't be a big boy...gotta be a small one first...the ones with the least to lose in corporate intelligence. So, I vote None of the Above! -Mike

World Peace would be nice... Other than that, all I want is my family to get together and have a great day together! Capped off with an excellently prepared (By Everyone!) Dinner. And, in case I don't get a chance to; Happy Holidays Everyone! : -Mike

for those who the link didn't work. Did you try right clicking, and save as? I got it to save to my desktop no problem with that trick. -Mike

I used to when I had a ton of shopping to get done. Now that most of my neices and nephews, not to mention my sisters and brothers, tend to not worry about getting anything, I have nobody to shop for. Except me -Mike

I'm wondering if the trend of offering BF deals online may start leaking to the Doorbuster items. think of it, if you drive the people to the websites, you can eliminate that bad press of grannies getting trampled on BF. Not to mention not having to deal with the overhead of allocating stock in the stores. That may be one of the new wrinkles this year. At least I'm thinking that may be... -Mike

I did peek into the archives of the forums from then. I didn't see the listings of the ads that were up last year. Thanks! -Mike

I cannot seem to find the archives of the deals from Black Friday's past.... Is my coffee to low octane this mornin, or am I searching for something that isn't here? :) Thank you to everyone! -Mike

The forums opened on September 7th, or right around there, last year. Thats when Brad posted the Welcome to the Holiday/BF Forums for 2006. -Mike (Who's just as jazzed up about it as all of you! Bring it on!)

mp4 is the fancy name for the video format that iPods use. http://www.apple.com/quicktime/technologies/mpeg4/ it looks like some of these players are unbranded iPod nano's. The only thing missing is the larger capacity ones that Apple sells. All the colors are there though. -Mike

oh yeah, that too!! mayhaps I should edit the title.... -Mike

http://www.sourcingmap.com/index.php verrrry interesting goodies here... Check 'em out. -Mike

I've never seen a code from either store. But, I was told before that if you like Abercrombies stuff, check out a store called Express. The clothes that are sold there are a lot less expensive than A&F stuff, and is made in the same lines that A&F is. The jeans run about $20-30 less than A&F. -Mike

I don't really have a specific memory that I hang onto as being my guidepost to what Christmas is. What I do have, are 25 or so years of memories that I will cherish until I pass :) Every Christmas is spent with the family at our house. We decorate the first week of December, and we bake from around the second week of November until the week before Christmas. So there are always a few plates of cookies and sweets for everyone to take home with them. Those are the best memories a guy, or gal, could ever have! -Mike

just a few times a day :) I try to keep my internet stuff to a bare minimum...I used to be hooked in almost everyday.... I'm much tanner now, thankyewverymuch! -Mike

www.walthers.com this is where you can find good trains at a decent price :) -Mike

Trains are a very popular item around the holidays still. I work in a hobby shop where we deal with this all year :) Lionel is still a decent name brand, unfortunately as with most hobby products, they are no longer made in the USA. I totally trust their quality controls though, as we have had few, read: under two, returns of any of their products in the 5 years I've been with this shop. The other brands we deal with on a regular basis are Bachmann, and Life-Like. Both are pretty good products. The downside is that they market most of their sets, which include lower quality trains in them, for the holidays specifically. Meaning that they assume that the train will be used for, at most, a few weeks a year. If you were to set up a permanent layout, I would suggest looking at something of a little higher quality just to alleviate a little bit of the maintenance that goes along with it. I have a few layouts that I've built in my time so far, and I've thoroughly enjoyed the process :) -Mike

How much do these sets go for before the after the holiday sales? The last couple of years our christmases have been a bust because of my dads condition...since he's gone this year, I think I'm going to try to get some cheer back into that time of year for us. :) ...and if I can save a few bucks in the process, so much the better!! -Mike

too bad our local compUSA is closing...it would have been nice to see the midnight madness :) -Mike